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Thank you for taking the time out to review my profile. Let me give you a brief on my resume so that you can have a better understanding of the same:

a) Work Experience: Currently working for an Indian investment bank as a PE/M&A analyst. I am planning to apply for 2013 batch and hoping to work till early 2013. I would have gained ~3 years of work experience (front end investment banking) which I think should prepare me to apply to a business school. I have worked on various deals, some of them have been the biggest in their sectors in India and also been part of the bank's business development exercise. Was solely responsible for originating a see side mandate for an Indian sugar company ($20 mn)

b) International Exposure: Apart from my one year stint in the UK during my masters (A top British Uni), I don’t really have any international exposure. Having said that, I do work with a lot of mid-market and boutique investments banks in US and UK which might count as “international exposure”.

c) GMAT: I have a GMAT score of 710

d) Social Involvement: I have worked with C.O.R.P for one year teaching English in a municipal school in Mumbai and a six month internship with a microfinance firm as a principal manager for new initiatives and business develoment covering rural areas and villages in the state of Rajasthan, India. Helped setup special help groups and also led firms communications with international peers and VC funds

e) Investment banking background: Mid-market investment banks in India give a better profile and exposure to its analysts as compared to their peers in the US and Europe. I have worked on live deals and also been a part of the business development exercise of the bank which is rare in global banks or US banks where analysts have a limited role.

f) Education: BA (Economics) Top of the class and university topper at Mumbai University, one of the oldest and prestigious arts and science college in India. Masters in Finance and Economics from a top British b-school.

g) Schools short listed: - Wharton Business School

- Yale SOM

- MIT Sloan

- Chicago Booth

- Kellogg

- Tepper School

- Columbia

- Duke

- Darden Virginia

I am still confused about schools in the UK (LBS, Judge and Oxford) and how much work experience they require since the average age in those schools is way higher than their American peers.

Please do let me know if my choice of schools is apt for my resume. Your thoughts will be deeply appreciated. Thank you again for all your help and support.

Sorry forgot to mention about my post MBA plans:I plan to venture into private equity. Funds that focus on upcoming and untapped sectors like Education and Micro finance in India. This way i can leverage my investment banking back-round tracking the education sector and my micro finance stint to add value to these "niche" funds.

I also plan to continue as an external adviser to the micro finance company i worked with and help them in their expansion plans which are already underway.

While your rank and marks as an undergraduate school are solid, I would consider retaking the GMAT. As an applicant within the hyper-competitive Indian applicant pool (more on this later) you should definitely aim for a score 20-30 above the school's average GMAT. Since it wasn't stated in your post, I am unsure as to whether this is the first time you have taken it. If this is the best score out of a number of attempts (let's say 3+), then you will instead have to rely on the other facets of the application to improve your appeal to an admissions committee - such as your marks and performance within grad school.

Your 3 years of work experience - especially because it is within investment banking (PE at that) - does set you apart from the traditional Indian IT applicant. With respect to sheer work months, you already know that US programs will likely consider it ample experience. I know you said that you were confused with the what EU programs wanted to see. Don't be, as it is really pretty simple. They want to see an average age of 28 or 29. In fact, a lot of EU programs have a hard and fast minimum work requirement to consider you for admittance; making you the runt of the pack in that respect.

The international experience you listed should not be sold short. It's up to you to leverage those experiences in your essays. Of course this requires you to examine how the programs you are applying to ask you about your work experiences. If the essays lean heavily towards international experience, team diversity, cultural barriers, etc., then you may come up a little short if asked to provide multiple examples. Review each school's current essays and see what stories you can form - without repeating the same international example. Besides the school's average GMAT, that should help you short-list your schools. Another point I wanted to make regarding diversity/empathy/cultural cohesion is simply this - I would also recommend avoiding making comments about the greater amount of prestige a junior-level investment banker in India is given in comparison to an American one. This is what I call an absolute statement, one that can be viewed as possibly extreme, and as an irrelevant comparison. At any rate, this is not a statement that will win an American admissions committee over because it won't be convincing with any banking recruiters. Consider this - what question could an adcom ask that would illicit this perceived fact?

Your history of social involvement is spot on with respect to advancing your goals. However, what will ensure that it is not viewed as a junket is your personal connection to it. Rhetorically - is there something in your past or present that compels you to get involved? Make sure it does not seem like a contrived means to an end.

If you can do this you stand a good chance of breaking into private equity - which is about the hardest field to get into. Remember that PE is often a red flag with adcoms, as the jobs are hard to come by. But based on what I've read it seems that if anyone is on track to do it, it is you. However, I would encourage you to bring it up a level and focus more on IB. It increases your chances of getting a job and that increases your chances of getting into school.

One more thing with respect to your goals. While your goals are admirable, they make me wonder why you would choose to go to a business school located in the US (and thus rack up a big bill), only to return to pursue a niche industry that is not likely going to yield a salary high enough to justify the expense.

In the end, when considering the hallowed world of private equity, its all about prestige and pedigree. This means your list of schools should be a subset of these 6: Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Stanford, Wharton, and MIT. Examine each school's stats and career center employment reports. Look to see what programs yield the greatest number of graduates that pursue private equity. Outside of these schools, Yale, Darden and Tepper are okay choices. But if you are going to add schools like Duke to the list, you might as well add NYU or Cornell before Fuqua.

Respectfully,Paul Lanzillotti

sarveshmehta wrote:

Hiya,

Thank you for taking the time out to review my profile. Let me give you a brief on my resume so that you can have a better understanding of the same:

a) Work Experience: Currently working for an Indian investment bank as a PE/M&A analyst. I am planning to apply for 2013 batch and hoping to work till early 2013. I would have gained ~3 years of work experience (front end investment banking) which I think should prepare me to apply to a business school. I have worked on various deals, some of them have been the biggest in their sectors in India and also been part of the bank's business development exercise. Was solely responsible for originating a see side mandate for an Indian sugar company ($20 mn)

b) International Exposure: Apart from my one year stint in the UK during my masters (A top British Uni), I don’t really have any international exposure. Having said that, I do work with a lot of mid-market and boutique investments banks in US and UK which might count as “international exposure”.

c) GMAT: I have a GMAT score of 710

d) Social Involvement: I have worked with C.O.R.P for one year teaching English in a municipal school in Mumbai and a six month internship with a microfinance firm as a principal manager for new initiatives and business develoment covering rural areas and villages in the state of Rajasthan, India. Helped setup special help groups and also led firms communications with international peers and VC funds

e) Investment banking background: Mid-market investment banks in India give a better profile and exposure to its analysts as compared to their peers in the US and Europe. I have worked on live deals and also been a part of the business development exercise of the bank which is rare in global banks or US banks where analysts have a limited role.

f) Education: BA (Economics) Top of the class and university topper at Mumbai University, one of the oldest and prestigious arts and science college in India. Masters in Finance and Economics from a top British b-school.

g) Schools short listed: - Wharton Business School

- Yale SOM

- MIT Sloan

- Chicago Booth

- Kellogg

- Tepper School

- Columbia

- Duke

- Darden Virginia

I am still confused about schools in the UK (LBS, Judge and Oxford) and how much work experience they require since the average age in those schools is way higher than their American peers.

Please do let me know if my choice of schools is apt for my resume. Your thoughts will be deeply appreciated. Thank you again for all your help and support.

This has been the best analysis of my resume. I would like to sincerely thank you for taking the time out to evaluate my profile.

On the outset, thank you for the confidence that you have shown in my candidacy. This was my first GMAT attempt and i will certainly try and improve my score based on your recommendation.

You are spot on with your analysis of EU schools. I am trying to focus all my attention on US based institutions.

I am still confused about my schools since i have a pretty long list. Is it possible for you to categorize these schools as "safety", "reach" and "stretch" so that i get an idea on the schools i need to stress on.

I am also worried about my employer reputation. My bank is an Indian bank with offices in Asia. It is one of the oldest and reputed in India but internationally not a big name (no name at all). I hope the schools look at the quality of my work rather than the reputation and brand name of my employer.

Again, Thank you for the awesome analysis. I wish i can crack this B-School code. I reallly wish..Cheers

Thanks for the props on my analysis. The reason I put so much time and effort into it is because you did a really good job letting me into your train of thoughts and stream of consciousness. Karma baby! Or as I like to say - Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

The list of stretches and safeties goes in order. I would say that Columbia and Chicago are 2 schools you can get into - especially Chicago which seems to be Indian friendly based on my experience. The rest of your programs are stretches with Wharton and MIT being the most attainable for you.

Don't lose sleep over your bank's reputation. The company does not make the man. The man makes the company and that is why your kick-ass leadership contributions needs to be highlighted. DO NOT feel like you have to explain what your company is. They get it - its a bank that is not Goldman. So you best believe they will shift gears and focus on how well you did - as you can't hide behind the Goldman name (or any other name for that matter.)

Respectfully,Paul Lanzillotti

sarveshmehta wrote:

Hi Paul,

This has been the best analysis of my resume. I would like to sincerely thank you for taking the time out to evaluate my profile.

On the outset, thank you for the confidence that you have shown in my candidacy. This was my first GMAT attempt and i will certainly try and improve my score based on your recommendation.

You are spot on with your analysis of EU schools. I am trying to focus all my attention on US based institutions.

I am still confused about my schools since i have a pretty long list. Is it possible for you to categorize these schools as "safety", "reach" and "stretch" so that i get an idea on the schools i need to stress on.

I am also worried about my employer reputation. My bank is an Indian bank with offices in Asia. It is one of the oldest and reputed in India but internationally not a big name (no name at all). I hope the schools look at the quality of my work rather than the reputation and brand name of my employer.

Again, Thank you for the awesome analysis. I wish i can crack this B-School code. I reallly wish..Cheers

I was researching about some schools in Europe in order to geographically hedge my MBA bet

I was looking at LBS, INSEAD and oxbridge. Do you have any views on these?? I want to apply to one of these but a little confused. Given my profile and goals, which school should i target (keeping in mind my chances of getting in that school)??

Thank you again. You're my first and last choice when it comes to MBA guidance. Cheers

I hit on this a little in one of our earlier posts. Your 3 years of work experience might not be considered enough at LBSINSEAD and/or Oxbridge. It basically puts you at the low end of their age range. Our of all the EU programs you just listed, LBS is going to give you the best bang for your buck - considering that you do want to go into finance.

My recommendation with any specific school, especially schools where you might have a little more difficulty determining your fit, is to go to the career center website for each respective school and pull their employment report. Look to see the number of students going into finance, who is hiring them and for what roles. I believe that if you had a few more years of work experience, your best that's what lie within the UK. This is because I believe that the UK government provides no cost work visas to anyone graduating from an MBA program in their country. You can't beat that deal - if it is still in play.

Thanks for the compliment - if I am your "first and last", then you are my ace in the place, or alternatively, my man with the MBA plan!

Respectfully,Paul Lanzillotti

sarveshmehta wrote:

Hi Paul,

Hope you've been doing well.

I was researching about some schools in Europe in order to geographically hedge my MBA bet

I was looking at LBS, INSEAD and oxbridge. Do you have any views on these?? I want to apply to one of these but a little confused. Given my profile and goals, which school should i target (keeping in mind my chances of getting in that school)??

Thank you again. You're my first and last choice when it comes to MBA guidance. Cheers

You really need to retake the GMAT. With a 650 you are not competitive at a top 15 business school. It is no point in applying to 6/7 schools only to be rejected or waitlisted. Just spend that time on studying for the GMAT instead of applying early to round one.

I do not recommend taking the GRE. It is not a direct replacement for the GMAT. You have to understand the context by which the GRE was introduced as an alternative entrance exam. It was meant to attract younger applicants and in particular, female applicants. It was meant to attract a greater number of nontraditional applicants who may historically not consider business school. You really do not fit that mold – so stay away from the GRE.

Respectfully,Paul Lanzillotti

sarveshmehta wrote:

Hey Paul,

We meet again. Hope you are doing well.

Ok, so disaster on the GMAT. Got a 650. What should i do?? retake or give a shot at GRE?? I took the GRE in 2008 and got a 1320 (770Q + 550V), will that count now?? or should i jus retake the GMAT.

Given my current DRE/GMAT scores and my profile above, which schools do u recommend now from that list?? do i still have a shot at top 15??